Recreational Therapists in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,324
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$11,286
18.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,763
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$62,610
Kept after tax
$51,324
Worth in national money
$50,763
State rank
16
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for recreational therapists is strong here. Arizona's middle earner gets $62,610, putting the state 16 of 48 — about 1.05% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Arizona, this sits in the middle: 200 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $62,610 the take-home is $51,324, which is worth about $50,763 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $67,490, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For recreational therapists, Arizona sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $62,610, ranking 16 of 48 and running about 1.05% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Recreational therapists ranks 200 of 491 occupations in Arizona by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Arizona's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for recreational therapists on its $62,610 median: $51,324 retained after tax becomes $50,763 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $67,490 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Recreational Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,710 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,610 |
| Top tenth earn over | $90,230 |
| This salary | $62,610 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Arizona | $51,324 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,487 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,250 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $61,163 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,930 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Arizona earn less than $62,610. The published range is $49,710 up to $90,230, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $51,324 take-home in Arizona comes from $62,610. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 200 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Arizona, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $50,763, the adjusted value of that $62,610 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 200 of 491 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for recreational therapists in Arizona the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $49,710 to $90,230. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $51,324, from $62,610, assumes a single Arizona filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 200 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 16 of 48 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Arizona, so $50,763 — the adjusted value of that $62,610 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 200 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $67,490, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $49,710 and the top tenth $90,230, so most people doing this work in Arizona sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Arizona costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $50,763 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Arizona then takes its own share, leaving $51,324.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 48 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Arizona is $67,490. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($49,710 to $90,230) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arizona rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $50,763 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $51,324 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.